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If your auto shop has ever experienced wasted
time—and who hasn’t? —it’s an indicator that your business could improve its
efficiency. Time is money, and the more efficient you can be with your time,
the better your output. Straightforward fixes like upgrading your equipment,
digitizing your processes, and clarifying your customer communication can
improve your business by leaps and bounds. If the solutions listed below sound
too simple to really make a difference, try implementing them! We think you’ll
be surprised by just what a difference a few small changes can make.

1.Go portable

More and more auto repair tools have become
portable. When you’re used to the equipment you have, it can be hard to imagine
changing it. Fortunately, that change can actually simplify and speed up your
work! When you can easily move your equipment to where it needs to be, you can
save quite a bit of time and effort that would otherwise be spent moving cars
or shifting heavy equipment that doesn’t want to be moved.

If you don’t currently have a portable gas
caddy, for example, siphoning and dispensing gas would be worth looking into.
Similarly, a portable sandblaster will help cut your prep time. Don’t forget
about vehicle dollies, either! Not only can they hold huge amounts of weight,
but they can qlwo be used to clear up space in your shop as well as making your
work that much easier to access. Look into more portable versions of your
current tools—even if that just means investing in a few more heavy-duty
extension cords—and you’ll find that you can streamline your work process. When
you can shift portable, lightweight machinery rather than cars that weigh
thousands of pounds, it only makes sense that you’ll move faster.

2. Clean a little cleaner

It’s a simple fact that cleaning will always
be an inevitable part of auto mechanic work. If you’re currently cleaning all
parts of a car without specialized tools, you aren’t working at full
efficiency. Paint gun washers, for example, are specifically designed to keep
your paint guns clean and ready for the next paint job. Pressure washers will
make it much simpler to clean stubborn grease and grime, and a curing lamp can
make your drying times that much shorter while still offering a professional
finish.

With the help of specialized equipment, you
can achieve the standard of cleanliness that your customers expect while also
freeing up more time for you and your employees to focus on what you’re
passionate about and most skilled it. It doesn’t make sense to spend a
disproportionate amount of time cleaning when your time and training are best
used doing something else!

3. Go digital

It might seem like a small thing, but
illegible orders can slow down your work process. Handwriting is so often
smudged or hard to read that it can cause unnecessary complications when
processing simple transactions. More specifically, it can result in delays at
best, and missing or misleading information at worst. Consider implementing a
digital system that will allow VIN scanning and typed, rather than handwritten,
information. Not only does digitizing allow for information that’s much harder
to misinterpret, but that same information can be transferred between people
and stations much faster and more efficiently. What’s more, it can give you the
option to view pending service recommendations at any point in the process.

When you’ve gone digital, you can share clear
information among staff members and clients in a simpler way. Programs that can
digitize your work are easier to access and implement than ever before, and
might only mean downloading an application on your tablet or smartphone.

4. Take pictures

There’s an old stereotype that mechanics will
exaggerate or invent problems in a client’s car in order to make more money.
It’s this persistent negative perception that leads so many clients to refuse
extra services, or to be skeptical when you or one of your employees discovers
an additional problem while working on a car. If you’re able to take pictures,
or even videos, of a problem, it’s much more convincing for your client.
Providing these pictures is an extra step towards convincing your clients to
address car problems now, rather than when they flare up that much worse in the
future.

When you can take care of all current problems
at once, it means less repeat work in the future and thus generally happier
clients. Even if providing pictures doesn’t convince them to take action,
they’ll at least appreciate the extra effort your team has put in to giving
them as much information as possible in a clear way.

Change is not always easy to cope with;
however, once you see how these changes reshape your shop for the better, you
will likely wish that you had adopted them sooner.

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO: EFFICIENCY VS INEFFICIENCY IN AUTO REPAIR SHOPS

And for you, what are the best strategies to keep the efficiency in your auto repair shop?